The X-Files #134: The Red and the Black

"A struggle for heaven and earth where is is one law: Fight or die. And one rule: Resist or serve."

ACTUAL DOCUMENTED ACCOUNT: Mulder and Scully try to figure out what happened in the previous episode, and the Syndicate secures a vaccine against black oil.

REVIEW: You know that new status quo I keep talking about? Forces conspire to return things to the way they were. It's hard, letting go! So you've got Krycek trying to pull Mulder back into believing in the alien conspiracy - and from other objective scenes, it does appear to be true - while Agent Spender has Scully questioning her most recent encounter of the third kind. The former is to be expected, so the latter is actually more interesting. Spender is right that Scully's been fed enough stories to create a false memory gestalt once she undergoes hypno-regression, just as he remembered UFOs as a child because his kooky mom talked about it all the time. How much of the X-Files is a self-fulfilling prophecy? A hallucinatory lexicon designed to make the debunkers start believe the lies?

I imagine we'll see more of Spender, not just because his mom's been abducted, leaving a case file wide open, but because someone with influence has taken an interest in him. Skinner knows this, somehow, possibly because he sees the "crazy mom" stuff vanishing from internal intel, and that interest comes from an isolated cabin in one of the few towns in Quebec with a proud English heritage (did they choose North Hatley so the letter carrier wouldn't have to speak French?). Spender returns his benefactor's letter back to him unopened and we discover it's none other than the presumed dead Cigarette Smoking Man. Is he trying to create another Mulder, what with Spender's abduction connection? Who knows?

Meanwhile, the Syndicate has, it seems, found its vaccine, saving(?) Marita. But she's in hot water regardless, as is Krycek; they're duplicity is discovered and perhaps punished. "Perhaps" because he's soon on the loose again and giving Mulder signs of his good faith. There's a lot going on here, and the connective tissue between scenes isn't always clear. The Syndicate also seems to have caught a rebel alien - and it's dawned on me that their facelessness is protection against black oil, as opposed to bad definition - and Krycek sends Mulder and Scully on its trail. The Bounty Hunter is driving the truck, so he's working with them(?). And then the alien is saved by a bright light (its own faction?) leaving Mulder with a memory gap. One wonders if the rebels and the disobedient alien hybrids/clones are one and the same if they've got the Bounty Hunter after then both. A LOT going on.

REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - Food for thought and some action, but the frenetic pace can confuse.